Banking Commission should consider radical reform options, says IoD

“We strongly support the Banking Commission’s determination to ask hard questions and consider radical reform. Competition and competitiveness should be central to the Commission’s deliberations. First, any reforms need to ensure that competition trumps regulation. Second, reforms need to consider the impact on the competitiveness of the City.

“There are a number of radical reform options, such as limited purpose banking, which have an intellectual appeal but may not be feasible to introduce unilaterally. The Commission will need to dig well below the surface in order to unearth the fact and fiction around any unilateral response by the UK.”

The Institute of Directors (IoD) was founded in 1903 and obtained a Royal Charter in 1906. The IoD is a non-party political organisation with approximately 38,000 members in the United Kingdom and overseas. Membership includes directors from right across the business spectrum – from media to manufacturing, e-business to the public and voluntary sectors. Members include CEOs of large corporations as well as entrepreneurial directors of start-up companies.

The IoD provides an effective voice to represent the interests of its members to key opinion-formers at the highest levels. These include Government ministers and their shadows, parliamentary committee members, senior civil servants and think-tanks. IoD policies and views are actively promoted to the national, regional and trade media. Follow us on Twitter to get the IoD’s reaction on business and public policy issues.

The IoD offers a wide range of business services which include business centre facilities, with ten UK centres (three in London, one each in Reading, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwich, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast) and one in Paris, conferences, networking events, virtual offices, issues-led guides and literature, as well as free access to business information and advisory services. The IoD places great emphasis on director development and has established a certified qualification for directors – Chartered Director – as well as running specific board and director-level training and individual career mentoring programmes.